Going back over the songs I recorded on Fire and Fall Back (solo acoustic/voice), I find that I must, after the space of, what, 8 years+?, reinvent the songs in order to sing them, so great has been the change in consciousness. It is like singing the songs of another person. Which is entirely true. But some (not all) of the songs (I speak of my own) are still worth singing.

Anyone who has undergone a radical life change will get what I mean, I am certain. It is not simply vocal pitch and tone, which has deepened considerably and become less nasal and more resonant (and was already going through the change at the time of recording — I can hear it now). It is the state of consciousness which was recorded then, and is not available to me now.

Thank you to WSNC, Winston-Salem Public Radio, for putting The Last Whoop-dee-doo! in rotation on the Afternoon Jazz Show with Jim Steele

I always liked Reba McEntire’s voice and stage personality, but now I admire her. If you love and respect your audience, you want to please them. Today on TV:

Behar asked McEntire, “If you ever went on a political rant in the middle of your act, what would happen?”

“My fans would be shocked,” the two-time Grammy-winner said. “I take it this way: they have paid their hard-earned money to come in there and fill a seat — parking, getting something at the concession stand, go and eat before the concert — I am there to entertain them, to take their worries away from them, so when they walk out, they can kind of have a little lift in their step and go, ‘Aw, that was such a great break from all the problems I have to deal with during daily life.’ So I’m not going to give them my political views.”